How To Publish Great Testimonials in WordPress

Displaying customer testimonials is an excellent way of building authority and authenticity about your products or services. By showing testimonials, you can also exhibit your experience and the high-profile clients that you have worked with. Testimonials from happy customers and visitors can dramatically increase your conversion rate too.

Adding and displaying client testimonials are not that hard in WordPress.

A quick search in the WordPress repository will provide you with lots of relevant plugins. In our recent post about the WordPress Review Plugins, we included WP Customer Reviews, which allows you to use a dedicated page for collecting testimonials. Besides that one, there are other WordPress plugins that can help you to display testimonials in an attractive way.

In today’s post, I will introduce you to the top 5 testimonials plugins for WordPress. All of these plugins are free and offer simple user interface for the beginners.

WordPress Testimony Plugins

1. Testimonials Widget

Testimonials Widgets allows you to display testimonials as a list or a slideshow. You can display them by using the custom widget, shortcodes or functions. The testimonials could be ordered by adding tags, categories, etc.

Installing and activating the plugin in your website will create a new menu item titled ‘Testimonials’. To add a new testimonial, go to Testimonials -> Add New. This will take you to the default post editor. After providing the title and the testimony, you will find separate fields to provide the client name, job title, location, company, email, URL, etc. You can also provide categories and tags for the testimonial.

After providing all the relevant information, publish the testimonial. You will find a complete list of all the testimonials in the Testimonials -> Testimonials page.

Testimonials Widget provides three different ways to display the testimonials – widgets, shortcodes, and a custom function. You will find the custom widgets in the Appearance -> Widgets page. The plugin comes with five widgets – Recent Testimonials, Testimonials Archives, Testimonials Categories, Testimonials Slider and Testimonials Tag Cloud.

Once you have decided to use a widget, drag the selected widget to your preferred location. Besides the widget title, you can also choose to display the testimonials as drop-downs or lists and show post count for the archive widget.

The testimonials slider widget is provided with lots of customization options. For examples, you can choose the transition mode, animation speed, slide width, hide specific elements, sorting order, etc. After making all the changes, click ‘Save’ and reload your website.

If you want to use the shortcodes or the custom functions, you will find a complete list in the plugin’s official page.

2. Testimonials by WooThemes

The name WooThemes suggests that this one will be an excellent plugin, and it is. This simple but powerful plugin lets you display what your customers are saying by using custom widgets, shortcodes or template tag.

After installing and activating the plugin, you will find a new menu item titled ‘Testimonials’ in the dashboard. You can add a new testimonial by going to the Testimonials -> Add New page. In that page, you will find separate sections to provide the customer name and the testimony. Below, you will find some additional options in a section titled ‘Testimonial Details’.

First of all, you can use a Gravatar of the client instead of using the featured image. To do that, provide the relevant email address in the ‘Gravatar E-mail Address’ field. Then, there are fields for providing a byline and a URL.

On the right side, you will find the usual options like selecting a category, providing a featured image, etc.

After providing the information, publish the testimonial. The plugin allows you to add unlimited number of testimonials. To view the complete list of all the testimonials, go to Testimonials -> All Testimonials.

Testimonials by WooThemes will install a custom widget in your website. Go to Appearance -> Widgets and find out the widget titled ‘Testimonials’. Drag and drop it to your desired location. The widget allows you to choose how many testimonials should be displayed, image size, sorting order, order direction, displaying the author name, avatar, URL, etc.

If you save the widget and reload your website, you should see the widget in place.

3. Easy Testimonials

As the name suggests, Easy Testimonials is a super easy plugin for adding and displaying testimonials in your WordPress website. You can use the custom widget or the shortcodes to display the testimonials. It is possible to show testimonials as a list or in random order.

Like other testimonial plugins, activating this plugin creates a new menu item titled ‘Testimonials’. And to add a new testimonial, you can go to Testimonials -> Add New Testimonial from the dashboard menu or New -> Testimonial from the top menu.

Both of them will take you to the default post editor. There you can provide the title and description for the testimonial. Below, the ‘Testimonial Information’ section provides additional options to provide the author name, location, product/service, rating, excerpt, etc.

On the right side, you will find the shortcode for this testimonial. By using that shortcode, you can display the testimonial in any post, page or widget.

Easy Testimonials also comes with two custom widgets – Easy Random Testimonial and Easy Testimonial Cycle. The last one is a testimonial Slider. For both of these widgets, you can select the number of testimonials to display, show title, excerpt, date, select a category, show rating, etc. For the slider, you can also choose the transition effect and duration for the slides.

After saving the widget, your testimonials(s) will be displayed on your website with a beautiful background.

4. Testimonial Rotator

Testimonial Rotator is a simple but powerful plugin for displaying testimonials in your WordPress website. Besides the regular testimonials, the plugin also adds a new custom post type to save your slider settings. The testimonials could be displayed by using shortcodes or the custom widget.

As usual, the plugin will add a new menu item titled ‘Testimonials’ in your website dashboard. However, before adding any new testimonials, you should create a rotator first. To do that, go to Testimonial -> Add Rotator.

Provide a name for your rotator. Then, in the ‘Rotator Options’ section, you will find various options to select the transition effect, image size, duration, transition speed, limit the number of testimonials, etc. Once you have made the necessary changes, click ‘Publish’. You will find all of your custom rotators in the Testimonial -> All Rotators page.

Now you can create a new testimonial. Go to Testimonial -> Add New. Provide a title and the testimonial body. From the ‘Testimonial Options’ section, you can select the rotator you want to use, provide a rating, author information, set a featured image, etc. Publish the testimonial after providing all the relevant information.

If you want to use the widget to display testimonials, go to Appearance -> Widgets. Find out the ‘Testimonial Rotator’ widget. The widget allows you to select which rotator you want to use, number of testimonials, randomize testimonials, etc. Save the widget after making the necessary changes. If you reload your website now, you will see the widget in its place.

5. GC Testimonials

The developers of GC Testimonials call it a testimonial manager. This manager plugin lets you collect and display customer testimonials in a simple and straightforward way. The built-in shortcode system will let you display testimonials in any place you want.

Like all the other testimonial plugins, GC Testimonials also creates a new menu item titled ‘Testimonials’ in your website dashboard. And you can add new testimonials by going to Testimonials -> Add New. This will take you to the very familiar post editor page. Besides the testimonial title and body, you will also find separate fields for excerpt, client name, email address, website, company name, etc.

Besides, it is also possible to request testimonials from customers. Just create a new post and paste the following shortcode into the post body – [testimonial-form]

Once a customer submits a testimonial, it should be approved by an admin. The plugin will use only the approved testimonials.

To display the plugin, you can use the custom widget or the shortcodes. To use the widget, go to the widgets page. You are looking for a widget titled ‘Testimonial Widget’. The widget lets you choose the testimonial category, number of testimonials, limit characters, show or hide images, include read more links and define the read more page for testimonials.

After making all the changes, save the widget and reload your website. Your testimonials widget should be in place now.

Final Words

Well, these were my picks for the top 5 testimonials plugins for WordPress. By using any of these plugins, you can easily publish great looking testimonials on your WordPress site.

I am curious, do you use any of them currently? Or maybe you are planning to use one in the future. Whichever it is, let me know your choice by leaving a comment below.